WF Strong

“The times do, in fact change. They change relentlessly. Inevitably. Inventively. And as they change, they set into bright relief not only outmoded honorifics and hunting jorns, but silver summoners and mother-of-pearl opera glasses and all manner of carefully crafted things that have outlived their usefulness.

Carefully crafted things that have outlived their usefulness, thought the Count. I wonder...”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“See this page of paper? It’s blank,” Scull said. “That, sir, is the most frightening battlefield in the world: the blank page. I mean to fill this paper with decent sentences, sir—this page and hundreds like it. Let me tell you, Colonel, it’s harder than fighting Lee. Why, it’s harder than fighting Napoleon. It requires unremitting attention,”
― Larry McMurtry, Comanche Moon

“My daddy once told me that some of the most miserable people he ever knew were the ones that finally got what they’d always wanted.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Cities of the Plain

“As Bonaparte would sigh centuries later, it takes very few defeats to unmake a self-made man.”
― Derek Leebaert, To Dare and to Conquer: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations, from Achilles to Al Qaeda